1. Field of the Invention
The invention is a system and method for spreadsheet and specific formula based governance of training assets and facilities, including student achievements, in any field and particularly in the medical simulation training field.
2. Description of Related Art
As powerful as sophisticated databases can be, in many cases they are not user friendly except in the eyes of formally trained information technology personnel. At the same time, the use of a spreadsheet (even by formally trained information technology personnel) for tracking and reporting of data records of any complexity is usually problematic: the functions of spreadsheets are not generally intended or believed to be particularly suited for management of data records including scheduling, tracking and reporting in multiple dimensions (such as multiple training facilities for multiple grade level users). Nonetheless, for management of training assets and facilities, given the choice many managers would prefer a spreadsheet-based system, if it existed, to having to master and use one of the comprehensive database programs available at this writing.
The need for easy-to-use tracking and reporting systems is particularly acute in any field where highly prized, high-demand training assets and facilities are used. As a nonlimiting example, nursing students generally are required to complete various simulations in simulation laboratories. These highly specialized simulation facilities are in no way fungible, so scheduling, tracking and reporting usage are both critically important and, up until the present invention, unwieldy to implement. In order to understand the first embodiment of the present invention, therefore, an initial review of the state of the art of nursing simulation laboratory facilities is helpful.
Studies show that students learn certain nursing procedures or health care interventions as well or better, in a simulated environment, as they do in a clinical setting. Simulation laboratory education provides in-depth preparation for clinical experience, because simulation effects both protocol development and practice before the student ever encounters any patient on which the same procedure is to be performed. A list of simulation equipment could include without limitation medical mannequins and simulators such as those having the intuitively descriptive names of: SimMan; SimMan 3G; SimBaby; Pelvic Simulator; NOELLE® Birthing Simulator including Newborn HAL (both remote controllable from up to 100 meters; standard features include programmable hemorrhage using simulated blood and catheterization with flow of simulated urine); Nurse Ann Vital Sims 3; Vital Sim Child; Vital Sim Infant. Other simulator mannequins known at this writing include resuscitation mannequins in which cardiac arrest simulation (particularly for EMT or paramedic training) includes reflux or regurgitation of artificial vomitus, which vomitus material must be cleared as part of reestablishing a reliable airway for successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Users of medical training simulators are inevitably positive if not grateful for the opportunity to practice on a simulator prior to treating a living patient experiencing the same or similar symptoms or crises.
Not only because practitioners require space around each mannequin or simulator in order to use it but because, in order to simulate a clinical setting, each mannequin or simulator will generally be in its own cubicle or patient room to enhance the simulation, such mannequin or simulator resources are generally allocated one-to-a-room or one-to-a-simulation-laboratory. (If all mannequins and simulators are used at once in one room, for instance in a disaster drill, the advance scheduled unavailability of all the mannequins and simulators still has to be scheduled and tracked.) Due to their high expense and high demand, simulators and their respective laboratories clearly constitute scarce resources for which scheduling, tracking and reporting has traditionally been a constant challenge. The simulator laboratories certainly cannot be “double-booked,” but it is important that they be completely scheduled at all available times both for optimal medical education of the enrolled students and to maximize the economic return to the educational institution of the significant investment in the simulator resources themselves. In addition, and particularly in a medical educational setting, there is also a need not only to manage the scheduling and management of multiple simulation facilities but also to track student hours' completed as a condition of curriculum fulfillment and/or student licensure. A need therefore remains for a user-friendly spreadsheet-based system for allocating, scheduling, tracking and reporting assets and facilities, medical or otherwise, in a way that coordinates both facilities management and student grade level and hours' completion in an easy to use system and method of managing and reporting using (only) a computer spreadsheet.